The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family's youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister's disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is frustratingly overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren't telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family's secret for decades.

A stunning debut novel,The Berry Pickersis a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time. (From HarperCollins)

• 32 Canadian books to read in spring 2023
• 30 must-read books for National Indigenous History Month
• The best Canadian fiction of 2023
• A dark family mystery unravels as one woman searches for the truth in Amanda Peters' novelThe Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi'kmaq and settler ancestry living in Annapolis Valley, N.S. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review and Filling Station Magazine. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers' Trust Rising Stars program.

Interviews with Amanda Peters

Information Morning - NS7:49Author Amanda Peters on her book The Berry Pickers

A novel about family... lost and found. Amanda Peters talks about her book, The Berry Pickers. It explores what happens when a Mi'kmaq family's child goes missing while they're doing seasonal work at a farm in Maine.

The Next Chapter3:15Amanda Peters on The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters reveals the inspiration behind her novel, The Berry Pickers.